Bittersweet nightshade flowers
Bittersweet continues strangling and climbing its neighbours. Purple petals with saffron noses cover the darkly veined vines and leaves. Here and there a green devil’s tomato can be found waiting for sunlight to make it blush red.
Black Henbane Flowers
The five henbanes grow taller and taller producing new delicate flowers every day. Butter yellow pollen is dusted across the sticky haired leaves by the dances of bees and wasps. I collect the dead flower heads which turn from yellow with burgundy veins to white with blue veins once dry –the yellows and reds of the sun evaporated.
What is that hiding under the large soft leaves of the clary sage? It’s a black nightshade stowaway far from its pot and where it was planted. I look under a few more leaves and find another. I think its trying to remind me it does as it pleases and grows where it chooses… whether you planted it or not. It’s been stalking me for years. At first uninvited and then welcomed once I convinced it not hide among my peppers and potatoes.
I’m still waiting and hoping for the black nightshades and the belladonna to bloom so I can have a harvest of berries and seeds.
I brought home a few new additions to the garden family. They were so lovely and fragrant I just couldn’t leave them at the garden centre all alone. So home with me came the rue (I ♥ rue!), yerba buena (a native herb kinda like a spearmint vine), and a gorgeous “strawberry seduction” yarrow. Isn’t the yarrow gorgeous? It smells worse than the henbane, but it’s lovely to look at and keeps away some unwanted insects. The flowers look a bit pink in the sunlight, but otherwise they look like blood and that makes this witch very happy.
Oooh… That strawberry seduction yarrow is gorgeous! I’ve never seen that variety! Also, it’s amazing how similar those nightshade flowers are to my eggplants. They’re in the same family, aren’t they? Here’s hoping I never have a surprise guest in my eggplant patch!
I repotted my rue yesterday and had to cut off a rootling mat. Its drying flat right now and looks wicked cool
Rue is in a bigger pot with new soil and is stretching just as fast as it can. Here’s hoping some of the seeds sprout!
I love your pictures. Such pretty poison….
Oh they’re so beautiful! I can’t wait to move to Spokane and get to planting. It will be lovely to have a little porch garden in the city. The yarrow and the nightshade flowers look gorgeous!
I am chuckling at the black nightshade
At last count, I now have five new volunteers of this plant in my yard. Two different cultivars of it. In the potted avocado tree, in the onion and tomato raised bed, nuzzling up to tomato plants in the ground, in a potted willow, and in a potted swedish whitebeam. And then there’s wild lettuce alllll over the place, which I never saw until Harry started posting about it.
I too had to smile at the appearance of black nightshade in your garden, especially in terms of how it is popping up in unexpected places. It has been doing that in my garden for the past two years. Last year it nearly took over the place. I think seriously that it is trying to give us witches a warning about preparation, although I have not got it parsed out by any means. I am very interested in anything you come up with in terms of why it is appearing in your garden now.
Hmm, I have noticed it usually shows up before something is about to fail or change. Sometimes I wonder if it’s a harbinger of doom…
Doom doom dooom doo doo doo DOOM do doo do dooooom. Oo wassat?!
I love your posts about your garden. I’ve never seen Yarrow that colour before. Where did you get those seeds? …if you don’t mind me asking
I bought a plant from a nursery, but I’m sure seeds are easily found. I’ve bought from Thompson Morgan before and had good results with their seeds:
http://www.thompsonmorgan.ca/product/Achillea-millefolium-Cassis/Perennial_Seeds
A quick google search also led to some American nurseries with plants for sale and who ship live plants: http://henryfields.com/strawberry-seduction-yarrow/p/3778/